LEGISLATIVE PROPOSAL FOR CHANGE IN NSAA RULES AND REGULATIONS
Title:

Greater Recognition Awards for District and State Cross Country. And/or the redistribution of Class D classifications.

Author:Greg Morris
School:Palmer
NSAA District:4
 
Proposal for:Activities Manual
 
Classes Affected:Class D
Activities Affected:Boys Cross-Country
Girls Cross-Country
This proposal:WILL NOT increase costs to the school
WILL increase costs to the NSAA
WILL increase travel for participating schools
WILL NOT decrease a student's or coach's instruction time
Implementation date:2024-08-01
Sections affected in Activities Manual:Page
7
8
Article

Section

Summary:Greater Recognition Awards for District and State Cross Country. And/or the redistribution of Class D classifications.
Rationale:If a team qualifies for state, they deserve a recognition plaque. There are other NSAA sanctioned activities and sports which get a plaque even if they don't qualify for state. One Act, for example, only sends the top team to state, but their second place team still gets physical recognition.
-With the increase in the number of schools who are taking up cross country as a sport, the pool of Class D teams participating in the district meet has grown exponentially. A few years ago, there were around 16 per district but this year our district has 24 schools participating. This means that in Class D, 40% of schools don't have a statistical chance to have a state qualifier and only 13% of those schools can qualify a team. In contrast, Class B has a 50% chance of qualifying a team. This makes those teams appear much more successful than the Class D Schools who work every bit as hard as the larger schools and don't have the luxury of selecting the best of the best because they have more athletes to choose from. The districts need to be split into D-1 and D-2 because cross country is only going to continue growing in the state since it's one of the most accessible sports available to students.
-Of the individual events, earning a medal at state cross country is the most challenging in the state of Nebraska. Wrestlers have a 40% chance of earning a state medal, Track and Field athletes also have a 40% chance of earning a medal once they're state qualified, but state cross country athletes have slightly more or less than a 10% shot at recognition at state, depending on the year and which class they're in. In all Class divisions of the male state cross country races in 2022, 5th through 25th place all finished within a minute of each other. They certainly qualify as elite runners. Not only that, state wrestling offers more total medals per meet than cross country does in a 5 year span.
-The State Meet needs to be televised. Even bowling was televised before it was state sanctioned. Most of the other state athletic event finals are televised. In many cases, this is perpetuating the idea among kids that cross country is a secondary, less important sport than the other fall sports. These kids work hard! They deserve the same recognition that state wrestlers get for their individual sports.
Pros:Schools, especially small ones, would have the benefit of getting better recognition for the efforts of their students. Class D schools often struggle to get enough students to cover all activities. If they feel like there is no chance they will be able to receive recognition for their extraordinary efforts, they are less likely to keep participating. With the proper balance, there would be equality of recognition for cross country athletes across the state, no matter the size of school.
Cons:There would be the additional expense of adding a few more medals and plaques. If another section of racing is involved to add a Class D-2 section, the state meet would take an hour longer. There would also be more logistics for the television crew but they’re doing that for other events already.